Here my experiences with the new installer iso:
https://files.devuan.org/devuan_chimaera/installer-iso/

1. An old Dell PC Optiplex 780
- BIOS / MBR mode
- Expert Install (standard install didn't start)
- Chose Cinnamon Desktop, OpenRC
--> worked very well
(only had a hick-up with the keyboard selection, it worked correctly in X but not on text console. Fixed it with a dpkg-reconfigure keyboard-configuration)

2. A newer Dell PC Optiplex 990
- UEFI / GPT mode (with secure boot disabled of course)
- Standard Install
- Chose Cinnamon Desktop, OpenRC
--> worked very well
(had to add the non-free firmware-amd-graphics for the AMD GPU)

I tested to install a second DE on both machines: XFCE4 using the tasksel program, and it went very well.
Is there a chance to get rid of the installation of anacron by default? That thing still does delay enormously the shutdown, occasionally.

--> Conclusion: it's already very good for me, thank you for that very pleasant and successful adventure

Is your GNOME desktop running in "fallback" mode?
If yes, make sure your graphics controller is supported or install the non-free firmware drivers. Gnome needs 3D acceleration.
It's just my thought, but possibly off-track.
Good luck.

rolfie,
there is one thing to mention:
If you set the motherboard to CSM mode, then you are well advised to install  in NON-UEFI mode!
If you set the motherboard to UEFI mode, then you MUST disable the "secure boot" option and install in UEFI (EFI) mode.
You can choose the install-mode  when you boot your stick afresh.
The Devuan installers handle these things quite well, usually... so is my experience with it.
I know, it's possible to fiddle with CSM disk mode and EFI boot, or in UEFI mode with classic (CSM) boot. If you succeed, all the better, but expect upgrades, migration or parallel-installs to fail.
I have learned that the hard way: EFI is fine, CSM is fine, but UEFI (secureboot) is a portal to hell.

I own a HP elitebook PC (Hewlett-Packard HP EliteBook 8460p/161C)
and it runs like a charm with Devuan Beowulf.
All I can say is this:
- first of all, make sure you reset all BIOS-settings to default,
- then make sensible changes you wish to it.
- then, if UEFI boot mode is used, disable "Secure Boot" (That means DO NOT USE THE TPM)
You can use classic BIOS mode as well (CHS-mode for the disks). It's less tricky.
Then install normally.
Do you have any special graphics processor on board? Intel chips work well, but be careful if there is a NVIDIA or AMD GPU.
Good luck.

Just my tiny hint: Devuan ASCII and Beowulf both work perfectly well with OpenRC and Network-Manager, as with SysV-Init. Never had a problem with nm on Devuan.

Hello all, hello fsmithred,
late, but finally done, I tested the 2 procedures as you asked for in your original post.

1. - Updating a perfectly working Beowulf (Devian3) machine (EFI) worked very well. A few packages were updated, and I'm glad to see that the Devuan bugreport  #438 has been dealt with. Great. (The issue with the lightdm greeter's greyed activity menus)

2. - I have downloaded the installer iso and tested it on another machine: (refracta installer devuan_beowulf_3.1.0_2020-11-30_amd64_desktop-live.iso)
The iso and the installer worked, but: A: I had troubles getting the grub-install working. I have resolved it by doing it manually in a maintenance boot-session.
This was on a BIOS/MBR machine.
Then, when installing lightdm, the old bug #438 re-appeared. (I'm quite confident the definitive installer isos -devuan 3.1- will have that fixed too.)

I hope this information to be useful. It comes from a user's perspective.
I'm very happy to work with Devuan Linux.
Greetings, Andre4freedom

Hello IdeaFix and all,
in the repos for Devuan Beowulf you can find the package nvidia-openjdk-8-jre.
I use it for programs that only run on Java 8. I think it's worth testing.
For programs that only run on Java 8 and NOT on Java 11 (from whatever source), nvidia-openjdk-8-jre could be your solution and you could stick to Devuan 3 / Beowulf. Please correct me if I'm wrong.
Good luck! - Andre

Thank you all!!
You have done an extraordinary job to make an extraordinarily good OS even better!
Congratulations.
Good luck for all your further undertakings. I sure will follow Devuan and will try to help using the forums etc.

I've just tested the devuan_beowulf_3.0.0_beta3_netinstall-amd64 iso.
Looks good.
It's important to check the release notes.
I tested netinstall, selecting the Cinnamon DE and OpenRC
The few things to note:
1. I had to add " non-free contrib" to /etc/apt/sources.list to get firmware-amd-graphics (No problem)
2. Language settings / locales were respected (Great)
3. Lightdm-greeter had to be edited. Bug 438 is closed and fix will be backported to Beowulf. Thanks to the maintainer. (It's in the release-notes)
4. /etc/pulse/client.conf.d/00-disable-autospawn.conf must be modified. (It's in the release-notes)
5. Every other thing is just "smooth sailing". Beowulf is very robust and reliable. Thanks to the Devuaners!

Testing the new isos Beta2: devuan_beowulf_3.0.0_beta2_amd64_desktop-live.iso

Result: great. far better that beta1. The only bug I have detected I have just filed a bugreport for: lightdm.
Here are my comments for those interested:
Installed a new system on a Dell Optiplex GX780 (BIOS/MBR)

1. Created new user
2. Login as new user:
--> Message: Unable to contact the Wicd daemon due to an access denied error from DBus. Please check that your user is in the netdev group.

3. sudo usermod -aG netwdev andre

4. Login as new user:
--> Problem still there.

5. Installed lightdm and lightdm-gtk-greeter-settings

6. Reboot and login using lightdm:
--> OK, but actions-menu-entries still greyed.
--> Wicd message gone, --> problem gone

7. Corrected:
    sudo vi /etc/pam.d/lightdm-greeter
    changed line to: session   optional pam_elogind.so (I have filed a bugreport for that)

8. Reboot --> actions-menu-entries now working on login screen

9: /etc/pulse/client.conf.d/00-disable-autospawn.conf
    is corrected in this release. Great! Bravo!

10. Synaptic: added Cinnamon

11. Reboot and login (Cinnamon): works perfectly well.

12. Bug: Installer did not respect locale settings, corrected:
--> sudo dpkg-reconfigure locales

13. Missing software: Java Runtime 8 (jre8)
    (where is the nvidia-openjdk-8-jre package?)

Andre, May 5, 2020

THANK YOU FOR YOUR GREAT WORK AND FOR DEVUAN LINUX!

I think lafat is right to post installation issues here....?
I'd like to add my few notes about the most recent Beowulf-beta installation media.

devuan_beowulf_3.0.0_beta_amd64_desktop-live iso: (march 13, 2020)
- All the install-process goes pretty well,
- The live iso recognizes the AMD radeon graphics chip correctly (great!)
- The refracta-installer does it's job
- Installation of the GRUB Boot loader (on a MBR-BIOS system) completely fails:
- System not bootable

devuan_beowulf_3.0.0_beta_amd64_desktop iso : (march 13, 2020)
- text-installer (ok)
- process works quite well, as usual
- does not install AMD radeon graphics xorg driver (can be done at the command-line)
- installer does NOT honour language and keyboard settings after reboot (can be fixed...)
- when choosing cinnamon desktop:
-- /etc/pam.d/lightdm-greeter still not correct (uses pam_systemd.so instead of pam_elogind.so)
-- /etc/pulse/client.conf.d/00-disable-autospawn.conf still wrong (comment out: autospawn=no)

My productive desktop and laptop systems all use Beowulf, but after installation of Ascii and upgrading them to Beowulf. And then they run like a charm (very happy).
Servers are still on Ascii, the run very well. Everything runs with Open-RC.
I think Devuan is still the best and I love it.
Thank you all!

Simple answer: YES
You must have (and you have) 64bit Intel or AMD x86 hardware. You can run client-VMs in 64bit and 32bit mode.
Works very well on ASCII.
Just install qemu-kvm and its dependencies from the ascii repos and you are fine.
Don't forget to install virt-manager too! it helps a lot.
Good luck